At the end of 9 days in Norway, all I can think of is how little immediately springs to mind when you mention it but what a great influence Norway and Norwegian people have really had abroad. While our travel focused on sustainability and innovation and we spent a great deal of time talking about Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, I first came to this realization as I was learning about the arts. For example, a number of people I spoke to before I left said they didn’t know much about Norway but Edvard Munch, Gustav Vigeland, Henrik Ibsen, and Edvard Grieg are all from there. If these names don’t immediately spark recognition, then I’m sure that the following will:
Edvard Munch. The Scream. 1893. Image from Wikipedia.
Nobel Peace Prize, designed by Gustav Vigeland. Image from the Nobel Prize website.
The other side of the Nobel Peace Prize. Image from the Nobel Prize website.
Another familiar Grieg tune is “Morning”, which is another tune composed for Henrik Ibsen’s play “Peer Gynt”. Other than “Peer Gynt”, Ibsen is best known for the play “A Doll’s House” which can be found on project Gutenberg. Despite its being written in 1879, it remains a very relevant and powerful work due to its exploration of relationships and identity.
To come back to my course’s focus on sustainability and the sovereign wealth fund in particular, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is among the two biggest in the world. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is where they save the money made from oil for the future when the oil runs out. It doesn’t just sit there and grow though, some of it’s been invested in large global corporations. There’s an ethical component to making investments and the government will not invest if it sees that a corporation is involved in human rights violations. My expertise is not in finance or management or any related areas so I won’t dig too deep into it, but I can tell you that the sovereign wealth fund has the potential to be very influential in pushing discussions and guidelines on ethics and sustainability in business. If politics and economics are more your expertise, I recommend you look into Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to learn more about the current debates around how the money is being managed.
Basically, I think it’s amazing that Norway draws such little attention and association at first mention but has contributed so much culturally and in terms of its political and economic system.
Although, a certain viral video has put Norway on the map for different reasons rather recently.
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